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Republicans again take partisan path on roads

For the second year in a row, Republican lawmakers gave themselves $115 million in state funds to dole out for special road projects of their choosing across the state. And for the second year in a row, Democrats are howling at what they say are clearly political decisions. This time, they say the party in control will benefit even more as more roads are being improved in Republican districts right before the November election. As Crain's reported in March, when the Republican leadership allocated money for priority road projects last year, it spent it almost entirely in districts represented by Republicans. Of the 108 projects funded across the state last year, just two were requested by Democrats. Democratic districts benefited from six additional projects, but only because the request came from a Republican whose district overlapped. This time around, though, Democrats did fare a little better. Of the 124 projects being funded this year, 39 are in at least a portion of a House Democrat's district and 15 in a Senate Democrat's district. Some are large enough that they stretch into more than one House or Senate district.

In announcing the road projects last week, House Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall, lamented that he even had to mention that $40 million of the funding will be spent in districts represented by Democrats. "Although roads and bridges shouldn't be a political issue, some people repeatedly rush to political calculations," Bolger said in his announcement. Those calculations are being made because the Republicans made selection of road projects political, said Robert McCann, communications director for the Senate Democrats. McCann said the partisan way the money was again allocated was disappointing. "We are now, for whatever reason, announcing road projects out of the speaker's office," McCann said. "There's no wonder why the public is so skeptical about putting more money into roads when there are big questions on how we spend it."

Among the 38 metro Detroit projects, the largest is $4 million for work on the University Drive overpass over I-75 in Auburn Hills, where the bridge is being replaced. The project list also includes $2.5 million for Green Lake Road between Pontiac Trail and Commerce Road in West Bloomfield Township and $2 million for work on M-59 from Elizabeth Road to I-94 in Clinton Township. For those projects and all of the work done on state highways, the money will be spent on heavy maintenance, which can include resurfacing and concrete patching. This can help to keep water from seeping into the road, which eventually can lead to potholes. Municipalities are expected to receive the funding for these projects in August. For now, this will be the only additional money going into the state's roads until lawmakers can come to an agreement on how to raise additional revenue for the transportation system. Chris Gautz: (517) 403-4403, cgautz@crain.com. Twitter: @chrisgautz